To say that Amazon’s HQ2 decision proved divisive would be an understatement. Whether Jeff Bezos selected the neighborhoods of Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia and Long Island City, in Queens, New York because of their proximity to the political and economic centers of the U.S., or because he owns homes in each area, or both, many are criticizing the e-commerce giant for its year-long site planning contest where local officials in 236 U.S. cities dedicated limited resources on proposals to attract Amazon that could have been better spent.

Frustration with Facebook and Google’s online advertising “duopoly,” which accounted for 63% of all U.S. digital ad revenue in 2017, is leading digital marketers to search for alternative ad-tech solutions. What firms, agencies, and departments are looking for is an agnostic platform that can process different types of location data, and especially mobile data, in order to design, deploy, and determine performance of geomarketing campaigns.

In a previous post we introduced CARTO VL (beta), a new Javascript library for making vector-based, client-side visualizations. This new offering marks a significant advancement of in-browser functionality for Location Intelligence applications powered by CARTO.

Advances made possible thanks to location data continue transforming business practices and processes when it comes to site planning. And now with insights from new data streams
it is even possible to determine what sites are most likely to increase sales for seasonal, temporary, and mobile businesses.

The unprecedented growth in Americans aged 65 and over is driving demand in the senior housing subsector. The Census Bureau expects the U.S. senior population to increase by 60 percent between 2016 and 2040, and preparing for this unprecedented population growth presents challenges for deciding when, where, and what type of medical facilities to open.

U.S. health inequity studies tend to focus on accessibility barriers caused by the industry’s fee-for-service model, but physicians, insurers, and public health officials have recently turned their attention to questions related to pharmacy accessibility. “There is substantial variation in the availability of pharmacies across the country,” explains Dr. Dima Qato. In a 2017 publication, Dr. Qato and her research team explored the varying degrees of pharmacy accessibility using 2015 data. While 90% of Americans filled more than 4 billion prescription orders (12.7 per capita) at community pharmacies located within 2-miles from their homes, when this national-level data is disaggregated and studied at the county level issues pertaining to accessibility appear to be more complicated. Additional findings included:

The proliferation of analytics is the result of attempts to manage, calculate, and determine the best course of action based on partial and/or incomplete data. And while another type of data analytics may seem unnecessary, Alex D. Singleton, Seth E. Spielman, and David C. Folch have put forth an interdisciplinary analytics for better understanding our interconnected cities in their new book, Urban Analytics.

“Open data,” as a core value, is easy to endorse, but it is not always so easy to practice. This problem inspired last year’s NYC Open Data Week, a collaboration between NYC Open Data, BetaNYC, and the greater NYC civic tech community to organize a series of events, workshops, and presentations to raise awareness and provide lessons to the public on working with the nearly 2,000 available data assets. For NYC Open Data Week 2018, there is an even greater emphasis on “learning how to work in the open,” Adrienne Schmoeker explained,“versus merely managing an open government program.”

Data storytelling is the process of translating and presenting data analysis as meaningful information. Whether your data story promotes environmental conservation or a change in your organization’s go-to-market strategies, the goal for data storytellers remains the same: tell a story that engages audiences and encourages action.

The wildfires ravaging northern California this month are among the most destructive in the state’s history. Since the beginning of October, wildfires across northern California counties including Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Butte have to date burned over 170,000 acres of land, destroyed 3,500 structures, forced the evacuation of 200,000 people, and caused 31 deaths.

More and more local government agencies are turning to open data and Location Intelligence to optimize current services while also preparing more sustainable solutions in light of anticipated obstacles stemming from increased urban migration, climate change, and an aging population.

FOSS4G, the annual International Conference for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, was held last week in Boston, Massachusetts. FOSS4G is an important conference for the Geospatial community, and one that CARTO has supported for the last several years.

A central component of territory management is sales territory design. Gartner has found a 73 percent increase in business implementation of territory management software since 2012, a figure likely to increase as more and more companies adopt data-driven strategies.

As the importance of location data continues to grow so do the ways you can visualize this information. We’ve scoured the web in search of data visualizations showing the value of location data in its many varieties, and have compiled this mega list to bring you the very best examples. The 80 entries below surprised us, taught us, inspired us, and drastically changed the way we understand location data.

Earth Day, an annual event rallying support for environmental protection, will take place this Saturday, and marks the event’s forty-seventh anniversary. A growing environmentally-conscious consumerism among millennials has helped support green initiatives as more and more businesses “go green.”

As massive amounts of data are stockpiled in databases and CRM platforms, executives are turning to data analysts to make sense of it all. But why are so many businesses still struggling to turn location data into profitable outcomes?

The debut of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 ushered in a location data revolution. The exponential rise in mobile devices, crowdsourcing applications, and smart gadgets connected within the Internet of Things over the last decade, however, has generated an unprecedented amount of location data leading to what some are calling Location Data 2.0.

Retail investments in technology reached an all-time high in 2016, a sign of the industry’s sustained commitment to providing smarter, data-driven retail experiences. But how can retailers ensure a return on these investments in 2017? It all comes back to location data.

According to an article written by esteemed musicologist Chris Brewer, we unconciously use music to develop the pyschology of our moods. That is to say, we use music to indicate love or heartbreak, to dance, to bring back memories, and to help us relax. Music is a powerful provider of...